Can teacher wisdom steer the AI transition in education?

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping countless industries; education is no exception. As AI tools rapidly enter classrooms, there are concerns about fair access, effective implementation, and the risk of widening the still persistent digital divide. Who are the players best positioned to guide this transition in a way that truly benefits every student? I recently spoke with Alix Guerrier, CEO of DonorsChoose, an education nonprofit where teachers submit funding requests based on classroom needs. Ninety percent of public schools in America have teachers using DonorsChoose, which tackles funding gaps by focusing on the most granular level: individual teacher requests. Alix, a former math and science teacher, edtech founder, and nonprofit leader, shares why he believes listening to the front lines—the teachers—is the most important strategic bet we can make to ensure AI fulfills its promise for all students. Q: Your background as a public school teacher and startup founder is unique. How has that journey shaped your vision for DonorsChoose and its mission to resource every classroom? Alix Guerrier: I’m a proud product of the New Haven, Connecticut, public school system. I had a front-row seat to the resourcing challenges schools face, which inspired me to become a public school teacher. Despite funding constraints, teachers went above and beyond for their students, and I saw the potential of a grassroots approach that serves individual teachers, which I later brought to my startup. DonorsChoose is unique because we maintain a laser-like focus on the needs of individual teachers and their students, while partnering with school, district, and state leaders. Together, we can learn from the grassroots innovation, then use those insights to shape broader policy and funding decisions, which we have been leaning into as an organization. Q: DonorsChoose has an unrivaled view of teacher needs. What is your data currently telling you about changing trends in classroom requests? Alix: We have access to a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data, because our model requires teachers to submit descriptions of the resources they need and how they plan to use them. Some requests remain the same year over year. For example, books were a primary request at our founding in 2000 and remain an important need today. Instructional technology, however, has been a major category of change. Over the past 25 years, we’ve tracked the shift from older tech to smartboards and Chromebooks. And starting in 2020, we saw a dramatic, sustained change in the amount of instructional technology requested. While AI-specific requests are still a small category, they are rapidly growing. Last school year, we saw around 600 requests for AI learning tools and resources; that number is already 1,000+ this school year. What has been most surprising is the primary AI use case emerging from our data. We expected to see requests centered on student productivity or teacher planning, and those exist. But the majority are focused on addressing diverse student needs. Teachers are using AI to generate real-time translation tools for multilingual language learners, or to rapidly adapt...

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